I WAS on my way back from Swaziland on Sunday when I had an uncomfortable feeling at the border post.
Swaziland is not much different from South Africa and only through the process of getting your passport stamped do you realise that you have been in another country.
The process was quite efficient on the Swazi side. The building is pleasant and well-ventilated with well-marked counters and plenty of staff on duty, even on a Sunday, to keep the queues moving relatively quickly.
It was another story on the South African side. The computer systems were down. A narrow passage in front of the immigration counters means there can only be a squash of people, no queues.
Three counters were in operation with tired, irritated officials having physically to write down people’s details instead of scanning passports.
People pushed and jostled in the small space to get to the counters. An elderly woman standing near me struggled to breathe. After an hour, my passport was stamped and we were able to re-enter South Africa.
There was a brief moment when I had a sense of foreboding about coming home. It was not the Home Affairs’ system malfunction that caused this, although it is depressing that we cannot get simple things right to welcome people into our country.
It was the realisation that South Africa is in such a state of turmoil that I was tempted momentarily to remain in the tiny monarchy with repressive practices.
After a month of violence on South Africa’s university campuses, a settlement to the higher-education funding crisis seems further than ever. Talks between students and management have broken down, many students have been arrested and injured, and several institutions are unable to continue with lectures and tests. The government is maintaining a safe distance from the chaos, periodically condemning the violence and damage to property. While many senior leaders in the ANC and government, including President Jacob Zuma and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa, have distinguished themselves as conflict mediators, they have made no effort to intervene to stop the mayhem.
Zuma’s response to weeks of disrupted learning and almost daily running battles between police and students was to appoint a ministerial task team to look into the issues. It shows little appreciation for the intensity of the protests or the fact that a generation of young people are begging for his attention.
There are other things that cause despair. The campaign in support of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is not only because people believe he is being unfairly persecuted for political purposes. Gordhan, along with former South African Revenue Services officials Ivan Pillay and Oupa Magashula, is expected to appear in court on November 2 on fraud charges.
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Expats vote Uganda as best place to live in Africa
Silent war on Somalis in Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth – Aisha Ali Noor, 29, sits on the bed in her dimly lit first-floor apartment on Durban Road in the Port Elizabeth suburb of Korsten. It is 07:30 and outside her window the road is already alive with activity as shop owners and traders load their bakkies with goods from the numerous Somali wholesalers that line both sides of the street.
“I’m afraid all the time,” Noor tells GroundUp via a translator. “I don’t go out anymore unless I have to. I’m worried I will be killed.”
Noor came to South Africa in 2011 after losing both her parents in Somalia. She left four children back home and joined her husband in Port Elizabeth.
Noor managed to escape, but she says she has been robbed and assaulted “six or seven times” since then. She showed GroundUp a number of police statements and case dockets that support her claims. In the most recent incident, which was reported on February 26, she was so badly beaten that she had to be hospitalised.
According to Fwamba Mukole, manager of Port Elizabeth’s Refugee Centre, a United Nations-funded project, Noor’s experiences are far from unique in the city, which has an estimated Somali population of around 6 000.
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With a heavy heart
I WAS on my way back from Swaziland on Sunday when I had an uncomfortable feeling at the border post.
Swaziland is not much different from South Africa and only through the process of getting your passport stamped do you realise that you have been in another country.
The process was quite efficient on the Swazi side. The building is pleasant and well-ventilated with well-marked counters and plenty of staff on duty, even on a Sunday, to keep the queues moving relatively quickly.
It was another story on the South African side. The computer systems were down. A narrow passage in front of the immigration counters means there can only be a squash of people, no queues.
People pushed and jostled in the small space to get to the counters. An elderly woman standing near me struggled to breathe. After an hour, my passport was stamped and we were able to re-enter South Africa.
There was a brief moment when I had a sense of foreboding about coming home. It was not the Home Affairs’ system malfunction that caused this, although it is depressing that we cannot get simple things right to welcome people into our country.
It was the realisation that South Africa is in such a state of turmoil that I was tempted momentarily to remain in the tiny monarchy with repressive practices.
After a month of violence on South Africa’s university campuses, a settlement to the higher-education funding crisis seems further than ever. Talks between students and management have broken down, many students have been arrested and injured, and several institutions are unable to continue with lectures and tests. The government is maintaining a safe distance from the chaos, periodically condemning the violence and damage to property. While many senior leaders in the ANC and government, including President Jacob Zuma and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa, have distinguished themselves as conflict mediators, they have made no effort to intervene to stop the mayhem.
Zuma’s response to weeks of disrupted learning and almost daily running battles between police and students was to appoint a ministerial task team to look into the issues. It shows little appreciation for the intensity of the protests or the fact that a generation of young people are begging for his attention.
There are other things that cause despair. The campaign in support of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is not only because people believe he is being unfairly persecuted for political purposes. Gordhan, along with former South African Revenue Services officials Ivan Pillay and Oupa Magashula, is expected to appear in court on November 2 on fraud charges.
Source
Biometric delays: Hundreds of frustrated passengers queue for hours yet only four officials on duty
Cape Town – The peak holiday period is looming and if these travellers’ complaints are anything to go by, foreign visitors are not in for a warm welcome.
Passengers arriving at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg have been especially hard hit due to new Biomtric capturing systems rolled out by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) for all non-citizens coming into the country. Its implementation and roll out was initiated in January 2016 but as of late complaints about too few officials or lack of training and discord in the administration process have escalated.
While a number of tourism bodies and heavyweights are engaging the DHA to find a solution to the apparent bottlenecks created, the Board of Airline Representatives South Africa (BARSA) is now calling for the immediate suspension of biometrics for the duration of the December holidays – as passengers continue to bear the brunt and expense of the situation.
‘3-hour wait – Utterly insane’
British traveller Peter Gyoury told Traveller24 in an email, “I have travelled many times to South Africa over the last 10 years. NEVER have I experienced immigration queues like I did arriving in to OR Tambo on Friday October 7th. “I had to wait to three hours to clear immigration after arriving from a 10.5 hour flight from London.”
According to Gyoury, an estimate six international flights arrived “almost at the same time, yet they have minimal immigration staff working (on a Friday of all days). This is mind boggling and creates the worst impression for first time visitors and such a long flight, imagine after a 15 hour flight from the USA. Utterly insane.”
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